Stay Frosty My Friends...

In addition to being a pitchman on television retailers, I also bring product to the networks. Often I am approached by very clever, industrious people with a new idea that they've worked on for countless hours developing. They have lived and breathed their idea, spent their life savings and truly believe it is the next great thing. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't...but all of that doesn't matter, because at the end of the day it all comes down to dollars and cents. You see, if even their idea is next best thing since sliced bread, if the numbers don't work no one will buy it. And I'm not talking about consumers here, I'm talking about the buyers at retailers, catalogs and TV shopping channels. While that might seem terribly elementary, it's a surprise to many people. It's all about margins, or the markup a retailer can make on an item, so if your wholesale price is too high, even if you've invented a perpetual motion machine, no one will give you a purchase order unless the numbers work. Too often, I encounter people who have fallen in love with their product and refuse to believe that it's not worth what they want to charge, or more often, what their costs and the margins demand.

So be practical, detached, aloof even, when it comes to your product. Believe in your invention, nurture it and watch it grow, but source it properly and make sure your costs are inline with the margins needed for the sales environment(s) of your choice.

The January Doldrums

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for all of us all to get our Christmas credit card statements and clamp down on spending like a mousetrap on a, well...mouse. Those of us in television retailing see it every year, and yet, every year we're surprised by it. Why is it so many of us in this business have such horrible sort term memory? Don't answer that. Anyway, sales these days are down across the boards, but I'm here to tell you, "don't panic!" Like I said, we go through this every year, so don't worry that your item has lost it's luster, run it's course or hit the end of the product cycle. It's the credit card bills! It's their fault! Buck up, the sun'll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun! After all, if you think our short-term memory is bad, it's NOTHING compared to that of the general public when it comes to spending and bills.

And thank God for that;)